User:Mathieugp/drafts/Language demographics of Quebec

This article presents the current language demographics of Quebec, a province of Canada.

Overview
The population census of 2006 counted 7,435,905 residing in Quebec. The table below gives an overview of the language profile of this population.

Language shifts
The contact of language groups in Quebec produces, as elsewhere, the phenomenon of language shifts. The table below groups the primary data on this matter in light of the census of 2006:

While the census data allows to calculate language shifts by comparing the mother tongue figures with those for languages most often spoken at home, it is not directly possible to know where nor when the shifts occurred. Language shifts being numerous among the immigrant population, the question of knowing if they occurred before or after immersion within the host society, and if after, how many years after the arrival date, becomes important to provide an accurate measure of the strength of languages within the society being observed.

At the census of 1971, the first to provide data relating to home language, there were about 2,500 speakers of non-official languages who declared speaking French most often at home and about 95,000 others who declared the same for English. In 2001, the census data showed some 110,000 native speakers of non-official languages speaking French most often at home and 150,000 who declared the same for English. There were therefore about 100,000 new shifts in favour of French and 55,000 in favour of English.

At first sight, the situation appears favourable to French and contributes to reinforce the belief that the power of attraction of the French language must have increased in Quebec between 1971 and 2001. In reality, the number of language shifts which occurred on Quebec territory and not abroad or in some other Canadian province lead to the opposite conclusion.

Of the total of some 110,000 native allophones who reported using French most often at home in Quebec, some 50,000 were caused as a result of modifications to the 2001 census questionnaire. Another 30,000 language shifts occurred among the immigrant population before their arrival in Quebec. Other factors like deaths and interprovincial migrations contribute to transform the overall picture.

After all these adjustments, the number of language shifts that occurred on Quebec soil between 1971 and 2001 are estimated to be 30,000 in favour of French and 75,000 in favour of English.

Interprovincial migration
Over the period of the past five Canadian censuses (1976-2001), Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan have had a negative migration rate, that is there were more people migrating out of these provinces to another location in Canada than there were people migrating from the rest of Canada to these same provinces.

The migration to and out of Quebec affect language groups in a different manner.

Montreal
There are today three distinct territories in the Greater Montreal Area: the metropolitan region itself, Montreal Island, and Montreal City. (The island and the city were coterminous for a time between the municipal merger of 2002 and the "demerger" which occurred in January 2006.)

Quebec allophones account for 9% of the population of Quebec, however 88% of this population reside in the Greater Montreal. Anglophones are also concentrated in the region of Montreal (60%).

Francophones account for 68% of the total population of Greater Montreal, anglophones 12.5% and allophones 18.5%. On the island of Montreal, the francophone majority drops to 52.8% by 2005, a net decline since the 1970s owing to francophone outmigration to more affluent suburbs in Laval and the South Shore. The anglophones account for 21% of the population and the allophones 36%.

Legislation

 * Main articles: Language policy of Quebec and Language policy of Canada

There are two sets of language laws in Quebec, which overlap and in various areas conflict or compete with each other: the laws passed by the Parliament of Canada and the laws passed by the Parliament of Quebec.

The federal language law and regulations seek to make it possible for all Canadian anglophone and francophone citizens to obtain services in the language of their choice from the federal government. Ottawa promotes the adoption of bilingualism by the population and especially among the employees in the public service.

In contrast, the Quebec language law and regulations try to promote French as the common public language of all Quebecers, while respecting the constitutional rights of its anglophone "minority" and the Amerindian and Inuit nations. The Quebec legislation promotes the adoption and the use of French to counteract the trend towards the anglicization of the non-anglophone population of Quebec.

General Studies

 * Louise Marmen et Jean-Pierre Corbeil (2004). Languages in Canada. 2001 Census, "New Canadian Perspectives", Canadian Heritage ISBN 0-662-68526-1
 * Louise Marmen et Jean-Pierre Corbeil (1999). Languages in Canada. 1996 Census, "New Canadian Perspectives", Canadian Heritage ISBN 0-662-64105-1

Language shifts

 * Jean-François Lisée. Conference: The French fact in Québec and Canada: The Hidden Storm, American University Summer Institute, Washington D.C., June 2004
 * Michael O'Keefe (2001). Francophone Minorities: Assimilation and Community Vitality. Second Edition, "New Canadian Perspectives Series", Canadian Heritage ISBN 0-662-64786-6
 * Michael O'Keefe (1999). Francophone Minorities: Assimilation and Community Vitality, "New Canadian Perspectives Series", Canadian Heritage
 * Charles Castonguay. "French is on the ropes. Why won't Ottawa admit it ?", Policy Options, 20, 8 : 39-50, 1999
 * Charles Castonguay. "Getting the facts straight on French : Reflections following the 1996 Census", in Inroads Journal, volume 8, 1999, pages 57 to 77
 * Charles Castonguay. "Transcript of a Standing Joint Committee on Official Languages hearing", recorded on April 28, 1998

In French
(voir article français pour l'instant)